“I. Love. Your. Brothers.”
Kane looked from the sitting room door to a laughing Nico, Damien and Ryder and grunted, “I hate the bastards.”
“Shut. Up!” Female voices screamed over one another.
I covered my ears and laughed.
My left hand was snatched away from my ear as Bronagh pulled it up to her face and inspected my killer engagement ring.
“It’s gorgeous,” she gushed.
Keela and Branna huddled closer and gushed over the ring, too.
“How did he ask?” Keela squealed. “And when?”
I had a massive smile on my face as I told them how Kane proposed and what he said and did whilst proposing. Each of the girls clutched their chest and sighed dreamily.
“I love your fiancé,” Keela giggled, emphasising the word.
I chuckled. “Yeah, he’s a bit of all right.”
“Is it goin’ to be a forever engagement like mine, or a quick one?” Branna asked. Her eyes were on me, but her mind was clearly elsewhere.
I hesitated and said, “Sooner rather than later, I think. He wants to get pregnant again right after the baby is born so all our kids are close in age. I don’t want to be whale sized in my dress, so sooner. Definitely sooner.”
Keela’s jaw dropped. “What? How many children does he want?”
“Five,” I replied.
Bronagh gasped. “Dominic wants five, too.”
I looked between the girls and blinked. “They all want five?”
Keela held up her finger and plucked her phone from her pocket, tapped the screen, put the phone on speaker and held it face up in her palm as the ring tone sounded.
“Kitten,” Alec’s voice purred through the speaker only a few seconds later.
Keela smiled. “I’ve a question for you.”
“Shoot.”
“When we do eventually have kids, how many do you want?”
“Five,” Alec instantly replied.
I stared at the phone.
“Why five?” Keela asked.
“Because I come from five... it’s a thing me and my brothers have always liked. If we were to have kids, we’d all like five.”
“Okay, thanks, babe. Talk to you later.”
Keela hung up before Alec could say another word.
“Five fuckin’ kids each.”
“That’s twenty Slater children if we all meet the quota,” Branna mused. “Twenty-five when Damien eventually settles down.”
I blew out a large breath. “Our poor fuckin’ fannies.”
We burst into a fit of laughter.
“So, I heard Alec grumbling about Kane not appreciatin’ him eariler,” Keela said to me with a raised eyebrow when our laughter subsided. “You know what that is all about?”
I laughed. “Yeah, I do.”
“Do tell,” Bronagh said as she ate a chocolate bar and leaned on the counter in Branna, Ryder, and Damien’s kitchen. I came over with Kane so he could spar with Nico and lift weights with Alec. Bronagh and Keela tagged along with them so we were having a girly chat while they worked out.
“Earlier, in me apartment, Nico was askin’ what would help me go into labour. Naturally, I listed the things that are supposed to help, but the lads zeroed in on one act in particular.”
“Sex,” Bronagh and Keela said in unison.
“On the money,” I chuckled. “Well, I told the lads Kane is scared to have sex with me while I’m so heavily pregnant and Alec stepped up to take one for the team.”
Keela burst into laughter.
“He didn’t!”
“He did.”
Bronagh fanned her face. “So what exactly did he do?”
“Alec offered to have sex with me to help me go into labour.”
Keela snorted. “I’ll have sex with you if it’ll help you go into labour.”
“Me too, I’ll happily do it,” Bronagh chirped.
“You will happily do what?”
We looked to the doorway when Nico and Kane walked into the kitchen. Bronagh grinned knowingly at her boyfriend.
“Me self and Keela are offerin’ to have sex with Aideen to help her go into labour.”
I heard a high-pitched scream come from the hallway.
“Accept!”
I stared wide-eyed as Alec skidded into the kitchen, barrelling into his brothers like they were pins and he was a bowling ball.
“Accept the proposition, Aideen,” he pleaded as he tried to remain on his feet. “I’ve dreamt of shit like this for years!”